The Russian President, Mr Vladimir Putin, has personally taken charge of an investigation into a central Moscow explosion that killed at least eight people yesterday. Police identified two suspects as coming from the Caucasus region, where Chechen rebels are fighting for independence.
Mr Putin convened an emergency meeting of his security and defence ministers after the rush-hour blast caused mayhem in a packed Moscow underpass, according to Interior Minister Vladimir Rushailo.
In a sign of the gravity with which the leader is viewing the attack, Mr Putin "took the situation under his personal control," Mr Rushailo said, adding that he thought the blast, just blocks from the Kremlin, should be treated as "an act of terrorism".
While Mr Putin avoided linking the blast directly to rebels in breakaway Chechnya, where Russia has been waging a 10-month "anti-terrorist" operation, the mayor of Moscow, Mr Yuri Luzhkov, said it might have been the work of Chechen rebels.
Initial investigations appeared to bear out the suspicions, as detectives said they had identified two suspects, one of them apparently from Russia's southern Caucasus region where Chechen separatists have been fighting federal troops.
Chechen guerrillas have repeatedly warned Moscow that they intended to intensify their recent bombing campaign unless Russian forces ended their offensive in Chechnya.
However, the Chechen President, Mr Aslan Maskhadov, immediately dissociated himself and Chechnya from the blast.
"Neither the regular Chechen forces, nor special services, nor the warlords have anything to do with the explosion on Pushkin Square," said Mr Maskadov in a statement in Ingushetia, neighbouring Chechnya.